Child of Fire
by cryofholy
Summary: "I did't think I'd be reborn at all. I was. Now I find myself in Konoha and the will of fire, like a real fire, spreads quite fast." OC-Insert.
1. Chapter 1

Death is weird, you know.

Or rather, everything afterwards is. I was always quite sure that when death finally took me, nothing would happen. Simply reverting back to the state I was in before death.

Apparently I was wrong.

I died in a manner that was fairly predictable for anyone who knew me. I was a thrill seeker, literally addicted to adrenaline. I escalated everything and it finally caught up with me, when a game of Russian Roullette did exactly what it's about. Thinking about it, quite a stupid idea, but hey, who cares?

So I was surprised, of course, when my eyes opened again.

Everything was blurry and cold and scary. A giant creature carried me around and gave to another one. It was a female giant who held me so close to her face that I could actually recognize it as a human. She had dark red hair and strange purple eyes and was looking at me like I was the greatest thing she'd ever seen.

I knew what this scenario was. I was just born, and this woman was my mother. She didn't look old enough to be a parent and yet, there was something reassuring about this woman to me. She held me to her chest and I was slowly lulled to sleep by both her gentle voice whispering to me and her heartbeat, a steady pounding even though to my newborn ears sounding slightly weak. The fact that I could hear her heartbeat so clearly was strange. In my previous life I could hardly hear a heartbeat when pressing my ear directly to someones chest. Now I was just born and I could hear her heartbeat while having her forehead gently pressed on mine.

When I deliberately stopped focusing on the heartbeat, something else became scarily loud. I could hear everything around me. The doctors speaking in hushed voices in a language I vaguely recognized as Japanese, footsteps of someone pacing outside this room, going up and down the same few meters over and over again. Everything was so _loud._

It wouldn't stop and I did the only thing my tiny body was capable of.

I cried.

A few weeks passed and we were finally released from the hospital. They had tried to find out why I always seemed to be in pain, but eventually they said they couldn't find anything wrong with me. My tiny head hurt all the time, because everything was too loud and only the heartbeat of my mother could act as my focus.

I had also picked up my first bits of language. The doctors called my mother "Moeru-san" and she refers to me as Hinoko. So my name was Moeru Hinoko now.

I hadn't met my father yet and he wasn't at my new home so I assumed that my mother would raise me on her own.

A month after my rebirth, my eyesight finally started working properly. The house I was living in was small, made predominately of wood and hardly decorated. However there were swords hanging on the walls and they were obviously a point of pride for my mother, as she cleaned them quite frequently.

Something I also noticed was that the technology in this place was, well, _pathetic._ I already missed my car. The only thing made for transport I had seen was when mother carried me around the house and outside the window was a wagon filled with mostly linen and similar things. They were loud and I can't even imagine how much torture a car would be to my new body.

I shuddered and Mother pressed me closer to her chest, cooing gentle words into my ears. But a loud noise next to another window scared me quite considerably. A man landed in front of the window with a thud. He gently tapped the window and I flinched away from the noise.

"Hiko." He was talking to my mother and she immediately whirled around. The look on her face was … complicated. She looked like she was stuck between utter joy and distress. Tears welled up in her eyes and she gently laid me down on her bed so she could approach the unknown man. He climbed through the window and was immediately embraced by my sobbing mother.

"T-Tahito. I thought you'd d-died." She said through her sobs. Her face pressed into the man's, Tahito's, chest.

He was taller than mother and he had pitch black eyes and equally dark hair. His entire outfit finally made me realize exactly where I was. His outfit consisted of fairly simple black clothing and a vest over his shirt. It looked like a uniform and a white and red paper fan was on display on the front of his vest.

The Konoha hitai-ate around his forehead simply reinforced the idea that I was in the Naruto universe.

"I know... I know... I'm so sorry I couldn't be here for you." The man's voice was hoarse and his face was marred with scars. The most prominent one was a large slash across his nose.

They stood in their embrace for a few minutes before the broke apart. Mother came to pick me up and with a tired yet so very relieved voice, said: "She has your eyes."

The polished metal of the hitai-ate of the man, who was apparently my father, reflected my face and I saw my mother was absolutely right.

Pitch black eyes stared back at me.


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next 4 months my father was actually around. He was apparently missing ever since a mission with his team had gone wrong. They were supposed to capture a missing-nin but it turned out that the target had supporters and my father was captured and tortured.

Moeru, formerly Uchiha, Tahito was a jounin, and he only awakened his sharingan quite late in his life. However it awakened with three tomoes. His specialty was ninjutsu, especially fire nature, and genjutsu. He had been made to leave the clan after he refused to marry one of his distant cousins because he was in love with my mother. Why he was still wearing the Uchiha clans symbol on his clothes I didn't know.

My mother, Meoru Hiko, was an experienced chunin with a focus on kenjutsu. How she'd even gotten together with an Uchiha in the first place was still unclear to me. She was a civilian born kunoichi but perhaps my father was simply not an important member of the Uchiha clan, so they didn't think that they'd be losing an asset.

I also had a vague idea of where I was in the timeline, by virtue of my parents discussing the Kyuubi attack on Konoha that 'happened two months before Hinoko was born'.

By now I had a firm grasp on the language and I could understand most of the words my parents used. I'd made a bit of mistake however, when I'd started speaking to early. Mother was shocked when her 4 months old child spoke up for the first time, only to form an entire sentence. "Where is da?" I'd asked absentmindedly, when I realized I hadn't seen my father for two days.

Between that and skipping the crawling stage, my parents might just get the idea I was some kind of prodigy.

* * *

At two years of age I had finally decided I'd become a ninja, even if I hadn't informed my parents of this fact yet.

I sat in my room with a leaf sticking to my forehead and sweat running down my face, when my mom's footsteps approached my room. I didn't move. Getting this far was quite difficult and I didn't want to start again. Turns out noise can disrupt your concentration very fast.

The door opened and I heard mom gasp.

"Hinoko, where'd you learn this?" She asked me and softly took the leaf away from me, presumably so I wouldn't exhaust my chakra much more.

I giggled and pointed at the window. We lived close to the Academy and pretending to have learned by observing the students would probably make more sense than a small child doing it on their own. "Da children did it. I wanted too." I pouted. "T-They do it much longer."

Mom looked simultaneously proud and cross with me. "Listen, Hinoko. You should never do this on your own. This is very dangerous." I looked down. I probably didn't have much chakra yet and even this could potentially kill me. "But if you want to learn, me and your father can teach you. Do you want to become a ninja, Hinoko?"

"Y-Yes. Want a sword. With fire too." I think this sentence made my mother incredibly happy. I clapped once, the excitement catching up even with my adult mind.

Mother picked me up. "Then we'll start tomorrow. But today we'll introduce you to someone your age."

We walked through the village for a while until we were intercepted by Father. He looked nervous, more nervous than I thought a shinobi could ever possibly be.

"Hey little one, today we're meeting daddy's former family."

That explains it quite well. The Uchiha were quite formal as far as I knew, and Dad really doesn't fit in there in my opinion.

As we arrived at the Uchiha clan main house, a woman and a boy carrying a toddler, who looked about my age, came towards us. "Hiko-san, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." She gestured towards the boys. "These are my sons, Itachi and Sasuke."

My mind needed a minute to catch up after that. I vaguely perceived Itachi bowing and Sasuke merely 'Hn'd' while looking at me, though he did have a tiny smile on his face.

Mom looked at me. "Hinoko do you want to play with Itachi and Sasuke? Me and your dad need to go talk with his family." I hesitantly nodded. This was just weird. Mom turned to Itachi. "You will take care of them right, Itachi-chan?"

"Of course Moeru-sama." Itachi was almost scarily formal. Mom put me down and I toddled after Itachi who was still carrying Sasuke. He brought us into a room filled with small toys. When Sasuke was finally put down on the ground he walked over to me and held out a toy kunai. "Hin-chan want play?"

I couldn't believe how cute this was. I nodded and took the kunai, glancing at Itachi. I wanted to look if he could teach me something. I channeled chakra into the kunai so it would stick to my hand and pointedly ignored how blurry my eyesight got, or how tired I was suddenly. "Look! I can chakra, Tachi, Saske!"

A second later, she passed out.

* * *

Itachi's eyes widened. Not even he had been able to channel chakra at this age and he was a prodigy. He reflexively activated his Sharingan to see if her chakra gave anything away. But before he could even focus on the little girls chakra, she collapsed. Itachi was in motion before he knew it and catched her. Sasuke spoke up. "Huh.. Hin-chan, wha's wrong?" Itachi realized the girl must have exhausted her chakra.

Itachi brought Hinoko to her parents immediately. They hadn't even gotten to sit down. "Moeru-sama, your daughter collapsed while channeling chakra." Itachis Father glanced at the girl in his grasp, Sharingan activated, even as her mother moved to take her from him to bring her to the hospital. "You said she was two, Tahito? Her chakra is already quite developed." Fugaku spoke without any emotion. "Y-Yes, Fugaku-sama, she's quite a-advanced for her age. I didn't know she could channel chakra, however she previously displayed an aptitude for comprehension. She learned speaking in sentences and walking very fast.

Itachi noticed the small scowl on his fathers face. "And you only thought to inform me of this now?." Tahitos face hardened. Itachi could practically feel the room temperature dropping. "Neither I _nor my daughter_ are part of this clan. You made this quite clear. Now, excuse me, I'll have to look after my daughter." The man left.

Itachi had overheard his father talking about how this meeting was supposed to go. Tahito-san had become a very skilled shinobi and Father wanted him back in the Clan. This clearly didn't go well.

* * *

I was tired. Chakra exhaustion sucks. I hadn't even opened my eyes yet but I could tell I was in a hospital. I could hear groans of pain in a far away room, hectic footsteps in the hallways and two heartbeats in my room above the other insignificant noise. My parents were in the room, though Dad had only just arrived since his heartbeat was still slightly accelerated, though still steadier than Mom's. And I still didn't open my eyes. My eyelids felt too heavy.

"Mom. I'm tired."

"I know, honey. You've exhausted your chakra. Do you know what that is?" She sounded curious.

"Energy, does cool things." Answering properly was too much effort. Damn, I'm starting to sound like Shikamaru.

My parents chuckled. "That's right." For a moment they were quiet. "How did you know we were here, Hinoko?"

Damn, Dad sounded serious. Lying'd be too troublesome. "Heard you. Mom's heart has a little flutter once a while. Dad's is slow and steady. Hear it all. Doc's coming." The knocking on the door stopped the conversation. "Has she awakened yet, Moeru-san?" The doctor had a kind voice but I could hear an almost unperceivable pitch of tiredness in his voice. Huh. Couldn't do that before, picking up such slight shifts in the voice and assigning them to certain circumstances. Everything was louder than normal. Then I heard the doctor's heart beat very hard once accompanied by a very slight surge of chakra. If I hadn't heard the strange heartbeat, I wouldn't even have noticed. I opened my eyes to see the doctor, _medic-nin actually_ , was a female Hyuga with an activated Byakugan.

The woman gasped. I could _hear_ the muscles in my parents tense. "Why's everything so loud?" I asked, because while I did have hearing on steroids already, now it felt like the steroids took steroids. The woman approached me slowly, seemingly making sure she wasn't loud. "You're amplifying your ears with chakra, little one. You need to try to stop. Can you do that?" She seemed to be whispering and it still sounded like she was screaming. But it made sense, I guessed.

I closed my eyes to focus. I needed to make the chakra in my ears return to a normal state and fast. I'd already collapsed because of chakra exhaustion, using it further could be deadly. Mom put a finger to my forehead. "Focus on the finger. Make your chakra follow and open your eyes when you lag behind, honey." Her voice was infinitely gentle.

It took a fair bit of time until my chakra was back to not being in use. I had thought that maybe my hearing would go to completely normal levels, however I could still hear the hearts of the people in the room and the pained groans of the man somewhere in the hospital.

"Not so loud anymore." I said, extremely exhausted.

"That's very g-" I passed out again.

* * *

When I was home again the next day, my parents revealed what the medics had found out. Apparently my chakra reserves were ridiculously large, almost similar to jinchuuriki and that I'd only exhausted my chakra because I my control was so poor that I'd essentially burned through most of my chakra reserves immediately. Therefore my parents started training me. I had already told Mom that I wanted to become a kunoichi so the training wasn't just limited to chakra control.

Dad took the part of chakra control. He would make me do the leaf exercise while observing with his sharingan and when I used too much chakra he would put me in a weak genjutsu, which I'd have to break out of. And while the training of chakra control wasn't really appealling to me, as it was boring, I was fascinated with genjutsu. Dad promised me that he would teach me when he thought I was capable of using one.

Mom's training spoke to the thrill seeker within me. She was training me in kenjutsu with a very small part of taijutsu thrown in. She handed me a bokken and told me to dodge and block. As it turns out, that is quite hard. The first few times I couldn't dodge even a single attack, so it was mostly just a lesson in taking a beating. But my speed showed serious promise and Mom got me chakra adjusted weights. She also promised me that once I got my first hit on her in a proper duel, she'd buy me a wakizashi. She _did_ say that I wouldn't get there in the next 4 years. Still it was something to look forward to.

The next two years were essentially just this training routine.

My kenjutsu made leaps of progress in this time. I still couldn't get a hit in when Mom was serious yet but I could hold her off for about 2 minutes. The two minutes were largely consistent of me dodging and Mom pushing me further and further until I eventually would attempt to hit her before I would collapse. Mom said that I was very good at both dodging and counter-attacking.

My chakra control was getting much better as well. I could go through entire training sessions with Dad without getting pulled into a genjutsu, which I've gotten very well at dispelling. Occasionally I still use too much chakra for the exercises, however I can usually tell when it happens.

"Hinoko" Dad's voice broke my concentration but I didn't let the leaf drop. "today we're going to try something different".

I had never heard a sentence more exciting than this.

"We're going outside for this."

It's tree-walking isn't it? But it still excited me to no end. I didn't think I was ready for this yet but I knew Dad wouldn't let me do something I'm not ready for.

My first try got me exactly two steps before I fell. This was much harder than I thought. By my third try, something distracted me thoroughly and I fell down the three steps I'd gotten up. There was a heartbeat, faint but steady, at the very edge of my hearing range. Dad seemed to notice that something was wrong and approached me. I was sure that someone was watching us. I subtly pointed to my ear, then to the east where the heartbeat came from and then held one finger up. Dad's sharingan eyes glanced in that direction and widened slightly, an action that sent a bit of panic through my brain. Dad was almost always calm and this didn't bode well.

The heartbeat moved closer rapidly. Dad firmly pushed me in the direction of the house and I obediently moved. The second I was inside I heard the clashing of metal on metal. Dad's heartbeat sped up, with fear or excitement, and I could hear the crackle of fire followed by a small explosion. Two heartbeats joined in and first I thought Konoha reinforcements arrived but as I heard Dad groan in pain that didn't seem to be the case. I slowly stuck my head outside the door so I could see what was going on. Dad had multiple senbon needles in his right arm, which seemed to have paralysed it. Twenty meters ahead, two men with slashed Konoha hitai-ate stood next to the charred remains of another.

A loud thud next to me alarmed me to the fact that a kunai had just narrowly avoided my head and got stuck in the wall, at the same time the two men started moving towards Dad, rapidly made hand signs. As he finished, he immediately rushed towards the closer enemy, and Dad's hand caught fire. He attempted to slash at him with a kunai and as the missing-nin blocked, Dad pressed his palm into the ninjas stomach. A white flame spread from the point Dad hit and the man incinerated with a cry of anguish. Simultaneously, the other missing-nin flanked Dad and pushed a kunai into his gut.

My eyes widened, my breath and heartbeat quickened and I felt a surge of rage run through me. I ignored the sudden clarity of my eyesight, ripped the kunai next to me out of the wall, deactivated my weights and burst forward, feeling incredibly light. The missing-nin's eyes met mine and I tried to project as much of my rage into him as I possibly could.

 _He hurt my father! I'll kill him!_

The man's eyes widened for the fraction of a second, then went unfocused. Before he could get out of whatever stupor he was in I had rammed the kunai into his chest.

 _This man had hurt my father!_

I stabbed his chest over and over again until a hand gently pushed on my shoulder. I whirled around and found myself in the firm embrace of my father.

 _He's fine... He has to be!_

Tears escaped my eyes and sobs wrecked my body, but I knew I had to get help for Dad. "Y-You need to l-lay down, Dad. I-I'll get M-Mom and then everything will be fine. Right?" As my father collapsed on my shoulders, nearly throwing me over, three heartbeats approached and I ripped the kunai out of the body of the missing-nin.

* * *

Three Konoha shinobi jumped down from the rooftops and surveyed the scene. A little girl with blood red eyes standing over a corpse, with a bloodied kunai in hand and protecting a jounin of Konoha. The sharingan eyes of the little girl, two tomoes, spinned in a motion that was almost threatening. The Jounin team leader moved slowly, doing his best to appear non-threatening. The girl was clearly in a _fragile_ state of mind and startling her didn't seem wise. They'd have to knock her out otherwise.

"Calm, little one. My teammate" he gestured to his female chunin team member "is a medic-nin. She can help."

"Hn." The noise was dismissive but she stepped back and I gestured for my teammate to approach. The child's eyes didn't stop spinning and she still firmly held the kunai like a sword, some kind of kenjutsu training apparent.

"He has sustained a stab to the gut, the wound is bleeding quite severely. He'll need medical attention beyond my abilities as soon as possible." The clear voice made the child flinch but she didn't move. Her head whipped to the side and a few moments later, a woman approached.

"Tahito! Hinoko!" The woman surveyed the situation quickly and her hardened face turned to us even as she moved closer to the young girl. "What happened here?" She gently pried the kunai from the girl's bloody hands.

"We only just arrived on scene. A few missing-nins were sighted around here and it seems these two found them. Are you the girls mother?" The jounin leader reported quickly and the woman nodded even as his teammate prepared the patient for transport. "You bring the patient to the hospital and meet us at the Hokage's office."

* * *

My mother carried me to the hospital piggyback but I couldn't take my eyes of my fathers wound. Even after temporary treatment by the field medic, the wound was still bleeding slightly. My grip on Mom tightened.

"He'll be okay, honey." I knew Mom was right. Dad's heartbeat was still steady and strong but I simply couldn't get the sight of my father being stabbed out of my head.

And I casually ignored the fact that I'd just killed a man.

My hands were still covered in blood.

I passed out... again.


	3. Chapter 3

For once I didn't wake up in the hospital, but still on the back of my mother. We hadn't even arrived at the hospital yet, though mother clearly held back so I could rest more. The medic-nin must have gone ahead, so they could take care of Dad.

The reality of my situation became scarily aware to me now. I had treated this like my previous life, where people rarely got hurt seriously. I always had to consciously seek out the danger before, could back out at all times. That's why my death didn't impact me a whole lot. I had seen the rotation of the cylinder, was reasonably sure that the gun was loaded. I had pulled the trigger expecting to die.

But here I didn't even have control of the gun. So many people in this world were the equivalent of hand grenades and I wouldn't even know if they stood beside me. Being weak in this universe meant that your family was in danger. Dad could take care of himself, but I was a major weakness to him. He had to take all of the missing-nins on because I was weak.

 _I don't want to be weak anymore. I **will** become strong._

* * *

Dad's injury turned out to be serious but ultimately not life threatening and we were all summoned to the Hokage's office.

The Hokage looked serious. It shouldn't be possible to get into the village as a missing-nin, or at least not undetected, and since none of them survived, there was no way to find out how they did. The medics that treated my father must have already informed the Hokage of what had occured. I couldn't shake the felling that this meeting was somehow intended as a test for me. Whether I could confront the facts of what happened today. Maybe I was just paranoid.

"So you, Tahito-san, were training with you're daughter when she made you aware of the presence of a missing-nin in the forest."

"Yes. My daughter has always had sensitive hearing, and she alerted me to the fact that she heard someone close by." Dad's voice was clinical and I imagined that it was a skill you learned with experience, totally detaching the report from any and all emotions. If I had to speak now, I probably would have some kind of fear or anger in my voice. I knew my mind was still spinning from the events, my first kill and my father's injury. "The missing-nin approached and I engaged in combat after sending my daughter into the house. After ending his life, two people joined the fight and my right arm was injured. In the following few seconds I killed one man, but was left open to attack at the same time. Before I could retaliate my daughter was already charging with a kunai in her hand."

The eyes of the Third turned to me expectantly. I was supposed to speak. I tried my best to pull myself together and make my voice sound as neutral as possible. "I-I could not s-stand beside while my father was being i-injured. The k-kunai had impacted in the wall beside me and I-I was in motion before I really realized it. I only became aware of myself again when my father put his hand on my shoulder. At that p-point the man had already died after... repeated s-stabbing of the chest." The neutrality thing didn't quite work.

Mom gently picked me up and I definitely _did not_ cry in the Hokage's office. I ignored the report that the first responder team gave, in favor of desperately clinging to my mother. I only started paying attention again when the Hokage's voice addressed my parents directly.

"Have you considered enrolling your daughter into the Academy early?" _What?_

"That depends entirely on her. We've been training her for 2 years already and she has made quite a lot of progress." Mom seemed conflicted though. "Me and my husband are simply worried about her childhood. We're reasonably sure that we can teach her on our own and we don't want to rush her development. The choice remains hers though."

 _Did I want to go to the Academy early?_ On the one hand, I would become a genin much earlier and that would allow me to learn much faster as well as earning my own money. But I'd also attract attention I might not want. Danzo would most certainly be interested if he isn't already and that was not something good. I also wouldn't go to the Academy with the main cast and that could potentially make integrating harder. Most of them became quite powerful in canon and having them on my side could balance my faster progression if I took the offer.

My priority was becoming powerful at the moment and accepting the offer would allow me to do that faster though.

"I'd like that, Hokage-sama." _I hope this was the right choice..._

The Third inspected me for a moment. "Very well. You'll start tomorrow. You'll be picked up at the Academy." Dad looked proud and Mom still looked slightly conflicted.

As we arrived back at home, Mom took a small wrapped box out of a closet I'd never really noticed before. "Me and your father had prepared a small package for when you went to the Academy, even if this is much sooner then I'd thought." She handed me the box. "But you know, you don't have to do this, right?"

Apparently she was worried that I hadn't thought this through. "I know, Mom. I've always wanted to become a kunoichi, you know that. This... This _is_ earlier than I thought but I'm so happy that I have this opportunity."

My parents nodded and Dad looked like I'd just given him the moon. "Now open your present."

I did. They'd gotten me a dark red dress which went quite well with my hair and didn't restrict my movement, two scrolls and a pouch filled with kunai. "Now you're not allowed to take these to the Academy, but your father will start training you in throwing weapons. And I will help you with the more theoratical classes."

I couldn't supress the urge to hug them both. "You're the best parents ever!"

"Let's see if you still think that in a year. We'll train you much more seriously, now that we know you're definitely becoming a ninja." The glint in my parents eyes promised countless hours of training.

Enrolling early didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

* * *

Turns out, the Academy curriculum is boring as hell. Even for a now 5, year old.

The general classes like science, geography and language were boring. The classes on kanji were the only ones that could've potentially benefitted me, but Mom's lessons were much faster, since I was the only one there.

And even taijutsu and throwing weapons was underwhelming due to my training with my parents. The other students couldn't compete with me at all.

On my fifth birthday, Dad finally deemed my control good enough to start training me in ninjutsu. The E-Class techniques were pathetically easy to pick up once I'd worked out how much chakra to use, so when I mastered them, Dad made me test my chakra affinity. Since I was technically an Uchiha, the result was pretty obvious. Fire.

But then my rotten luck showed itself again.

"I'm _trying_ it, Dad. It just burns when I do and that's really unpleasant."

His blood red sharingan whirred to life, slowly spinning. "You need to mould the chakra in your stomach slowly. Try it again."

I sighed, formed the Tiger hand seal and closed my eyes, focusing on the chakra in my stomach, spinning it like my Dad's eyes. Immediately the entire area around my stomach became scoldingly hot and I felt like I was burning up from the inside. It seemed like my chakra wanted to push out of my body and when I tried to draw it upwarts to my mouth, it started hurting so much I just couldn't do it.

"It hurts, Dad." I'm getting frustrated now. Nature transformation was not necessarily the hardest, _not the easiest either, but I **know** I'm doing it right, damn it!_

Dad's hands grasped my shoulders firmly. "Hinoko, stop."

 _It wasn't working anyways, so why should I stop? If I can't do this, I won't get strong enough to protect anyone. Without any elemental ninjutsu I can't actually be a ninja. It might have worked for Lee but I'm not nearly as strong as him and I know I won't be._ I spun the chakra even faster and the pain got even worse, while my chakra seemed to attempt to escape through my arms. I reflexively opened my eyes when the smell of burning flesh invaded my nose.

 _My hands are on fire..._

 _My **fucking hands** are on fire!_

I slowly, calmly even, meet my father's slightly _scared?, shocked?, surprised?_ eyes and my childlike persona broke down entirely.

"What **the FUCK** is happening?" My voice was deep, which sounded ridiculous coming from my tiny body, and now the face of my father was practically the definition of shock.

I stopped everything I was doing with my chakra and focused on the steady heartbeat of my mother, which was slowly approaching me. A second before she enveloped me in a bonecrushing hug, I could feel a cool sensation go over my arms and a foreign chakra began to seep into my burned flesh. _A medic-ninjutsu, I guess. Dad must've picked it up somewhere with his Sharingan._

I hadn't realised I'd needed it, but Mom's hug reassured me to my very core and I could practically feel my chaotic chakra settle down.

I started considering what had happened. Nature transformation was achieved by changing the properties of ones chakra to fit the elements. _I was doing it by spinning it, thereby heating my chakra._

Dad's voice interrupted my thoughts. "I'm not actually sure what you're doing wrong. Spinning your chakra like that is how I do it and this has never happened to me before. It looked like your body was resisting the chakra as soon as you started moulding it into fire nature." _That's right, it only started doing it when I started moulding it. I... I think I've got it._

I escaped my mother's hug and turned towards the training dummy Dad hat set up for this and once again focused on my chakra.

This time I didn't make it spin, instead drawing it towards my mouth and gathering it there. Once I felt like I had enough, I blew it out of my mouth only for a ball of smoke and embers to fly towards the dummy. I repeated that and just before blowing it out of my mouth again, I put the smallest bit of spin on the chakra.

The result was a fireball, about the size of my tiny form. _That's amazing._

"I think my chakra is constantly halfway transformed into fire-natured chakra. My body resisted when I tried to mould it because I was trying to burn myself from the inside." This was a thought process far beyond my current physical age and I doubt I could have picked up on this before I died, which implied that I'd somehow gotten a genetic boost to intelligence or at the very least comprehension.

"Yes, that would make sense. It also means that you will probably pick up Katon jutsus much faster, while most likely struggling to learn any other elemental jutsu. I'm still not quite sure how it works, but that seems to be the case." That wasn't necessarily the worst thing. Fire Release is the most destructive of the nature transformations.

Sadly, it's mostly mid-to-long range and that wasn't really fitting with my style, kenjutsu and all. That could be remedied though, since I could already imagine the possibilities my _mutation, I guess_ , could allow me. Before I could lose myself in my thoughts, Mom's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Now this must have left you exhausted, so come in and eat something."

I wasn't really exhausted, but I would literally give my eyes for Mom's cooking.

When my little family was sitting around the table, Mom's eyes found mine and for the first time in my life, she seemed nervous. I pushed chakra into my eyes, simply because I couldn't believe this. Mom was strong and confident and the nervous look on her face was _wrong_. My eyes weren't deceiving, since even with the now almost scary clarity of my eyesight which reminded me of that day, _Oh God Oh God I just killed someone,_ Mom's face was still nervous. Though apparently something in my eyes changed that because she suddenly went from surprise, shock and settled on pride which was mirrored on my Dad's face.

Mom jumped up and ran into the bathroom, only to return with a tiny mirror which she promptly pushed in front of my eyes. My spinning red eyes, that had one tomoe each seemingly floating around the eyes. That hardly distracted me from the fact that Mom had looked _nervous_.

"Let's not even start talking about that. You were about to tell me something."

The nervousness was back immediately. "Y-Yes, we... You... How would you feel about getting a sibling."

...

...

My mind froze entirely.

* * *

For the first time, Hiko's daughter's mind seemed to stop thinking. It took almost an entire minute, in which the irrational fear that Hinoko might disapprove, settled into Hiko, until that fear was immediately blown away by the gigantic smile blooming on her daughter's face.

The expression was shocking, as Hinoko had never made such an innocent and childish expression, or at least there was always something _fake_ about her expressions, which had worried Hiko quite often, thinking that her intelligence robbed her of her childhood.

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Hinoko was simply brimming with excitement.

Hiko smiled. "It's still too soon to tell, honey. And we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, right?"

"Yeah. I promise I'll be the best sister anyone could ask for." That was said with such determination, Hiko didn't have much trouble believing it.

* * *

Tahito had always wanted a family and Hinoko fulfilled that dream for him.

But in her development, something was becoming abundantly clear to him. His daughter was a prodigy and she displayed quite a few characteristics he'd only seen in two people that he never had much contact with. Her intelligence and drive to become a competent ninja was similar to what he'd heard about Kakashi of the Sharingan before his teammates died. And her protectiveness, which was there ever since that day she'd killed someone for the first time, was similar to his former family member Uchiha Itachi, a ten year old child who'd just made chuunin and clearly had the skills for jonin already. He hadn't seen him a lot, but there were two things he valued even more than his own life.

Konoha and his little brother Sasuke.

Now that Hinoko's been silent for a while, Tahito could _see_ that she was getting pulled into her thoughts again, but the direction couldn't be a good one, as her expression got progressively darker.

A glance towards his wife confirmed that she noticed too. The mood shift in their daughter was jarring and he could only wonder what caused it.

* * *

 _Could I even protect a sibling? In about three years from now, Itachi will massacre the Uchiha Clan. Dad is a former one and has the eyes and I have the eyes as well. That would be enough for Danzo to want us dead as well.  
_

 _Three years... I had three years to become powerful enough to protect my family and I wouldn't be able to in the Academy. But graduating now would make me get Danzos attention as well. There really wasn't a choice involved here. An Academy student won't learn enough to fend off Itachi._

 _Could I get an apprenticeship instead of a genin team? Having the sole attention of a jonin would speed up my development considerably. I have to speak to the Hokage._

 _But who'd they give me? Kakashi was still in ANBU or something and they would definitely assign me someone that could match my intelligence._

 _No point worrying about that now. Have to graduate first_

I finally snapped out of my thoughts and saw my parents give me slightly worried looks.

"Mom, Dad, I want to graduate from the Academy. I know I'm skilled enough."

"Are you sure, honey? You don't need to rush." By the slightly defeated tone, I could tell that she knew I wouldn't back down. "But we'll support you whatever you do."

I decided to drop my childish persona for the second time today. "You... You know I'm quite intelligent, right? I've thought this through very thoroughly and the fact that I'll be getting a sibling just reinforces that idea. I _need_ to be strong enough to protect him or her and an Academy student, even with my intellect, can't defeat more than a chuunin. I just don't have the access to ways to become stronger since I know the lessons they teach at the Academy. This world is dangerous and I've always known about that, but before this news I could always sleep soundly, knowing you could protect yourselves." My voice broke slightly as I got more emotional. "A baby can't protect itself and you can't fight while looking after both me and my sibling. If I could protect my sibling and myself, you'd be able to protect yourselves much easier as well."

They looked stunned and Dad only broke the silence after a minute of gaping at my thought process.

"If that is what you want, we'll speak to the Hokage about this."

"Could I... Could I do that myself?"

* * *

They took me to the Hokage's office the very next day.

As I stood before him, I wondered just how many people he is protecting, or rather how many people he actively thinks about protecting. As Hokage, he probably protects everyone but there has to be someone in particular that he wants to protect, right?

"Ah, hello again, Hinoko-san. Your parents tell me you wish to talk about something?"

I bowed, as I probably should have done already, before addressing him.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I have two requests, that I'd like you to listen to." I tried hard to make my voice sound indifferent.

"Go ahead. I believe you are reasonable enough to know what I could and could not grant." _He's speaking to me like an adult. He knows._

"Indeed I do not think my first request will be any trouble. I wish to graduate from the Academy as soon as possible." He seemed inspect me silently and I chose to add: "I have the necessary skills already and am aware of the test that often follows the graduation and it's purpose."

He nodded sagely. "That should not be a problem. I suppose your second request is to be assigned a mentor instead of a genin team?"

 _How the hell does he know?_

"Don't look so surprised. You have a strong wish to protect your loved ones and I'd heard that your mother was having another child. Before you were content with the speed but know you want to be strong enough to protect a young child and you want to get there fast. A mentor is, of course, the fastest way to do so."

"Y-You are correct. I merely wish to request a mentor with a sufficient intellect." Someone with lesser intelligence might be vulnerable to petty impulses like jealousy.

"Very well. I grant both of your requests. I will send your mentor to pick you up after the Academy is over tomorrow. Now get home and rest, you'll need the energy."

"Of course, thank you Hokage-sama."

As I left the office, I merely picked up the words "Fetch me the Jonin Commander."

...

 _Sufficient intellect indeed_.


End file.
